In Calais, condemnation of anti-meal orders and refugee smugglers – Fundamental right and public freedom
Referred to by more than a dozen associations in October 2020, the Administrative Court of Lille finally ruled on the merits, on October 12, on the legality of the prefectural decrees prohibiting the free distribution of drinks and foodstuffs in certain defined areas of the city center of Calais.
Since the official dismantling of the migrant and refugee camp set up on the land of “la Lande” in Calais in 2020, the authorities have been trying to fight against any new phenomenon of sedentarization of exiles, even though their number continues to increase, making the reception and care system put in place by the State insufficient to cover all health needs. Today, the municipality of Calais would welcome between 1,000 and 1,500 exiles, including some who settled in the city center, following an operation to evacuate makeshift camps set up in the industrial zone. dunes. This situation, which led to a doubling of the population present in Calais and living in very precarious conditions, mechanically forced the local associative fabric to multiply their food aid distribution mechanisms tenfold. As of 2017, state services have been forced by the courts to provide water points, toilets and a food distribution network.
But from September 2020, and at the request of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, by several successive decrees, regulated and prohibited, in several areas of the city, the free distribution of drinks and food by associations, due to the disruption of public order resulting from the proliferation of waste in the city center, and the health risks associated with covid-19. By an order issued in 2020, the Administrative Court of Lille then rejected, for lack of urgency, the request for suspension of these prefectural orders (see T. Bigot,;Rejection of the appeal against the “anti-meal” decree in CalaisDalloz news, Sept. 24, 2020).
The “anti-meal” prefectural decrees nibbled by the administrative judge
Seized on the merits, the court begins by recalling that when the judge of excess of power examines, within the framework of the control of proportionality, the legality of a police measure, he “examines successively if the measure in question is adapted, necessary and proportionate to the purpose it pursues” (EC…